In The Streets of Seattle
by The Kara Sea
Summary: Dan, Amy, and Grace went on vacation to Seattle for a week. The sun gleamed against the fresh ocean water, causing the blue waves to tint orange, and the crisp, clean, air surrounded the late afternoon sky. For Joelle8's Songfic Challenge, One-Shot.


**In The Streets of Seattle**

_**Hello Seattle**__, _Dan thought to himself. He had just arrived in the airport of Seattle with his older sister, Amy, and his beloved grandmother, Grace. Summer vacation had just started, and Grace had promised them a week vacation to Seattle after their hard work at school and her absence the week before. Dan was only a little seven-years-old, but he had a very big imagination for his age.

Amy gasped at the city. "We're finally here," she muttered to herself. Amy had been waiting for this moment for a week.She was anxious to see the new libraries, monuments, and historic landscapes in store for her ever since Grace had mentioned going. Now that she was finally here, she didn't know where to start. Tall glass buildings in all sizes surrounded the scenery. Post lamps lined the busy sidewalk and cars rushed by.**  
**

"Yes… Isn't it lovely?" Grace said in awe, peering out the big, glass windows of the airport.

"Can we go now?" Dan rudely interrupted, struggling to hold his rather-large black duffel bag.

Grace regarded him, a sweet smile forming on her lips. "I do wish we could go, but we have to get our luggage at the conveyor belt."

Dan had a confused look plastered over his face. "Luggage doesn't come from belts. You use belts to keep your pants up."

The two females chuckled. Amy replied. "That's not what Grace meant, Dan. A conveyor belt is an endless belt or chain with rollers, used for carrying luggage or other types of bags."

Dan had a blank expression on his face. However, Grace looked stunned. "Might I ask you where you got that term?"

Amy opened her mouth to speak, but Dan cut in. "Can we _please_ go now?"

"All right, Dan, we'll go now. Though, may I ask you two a favour?"

Before Dan could complain that his feet hurt, and he was starving, Amy agreed. "What can we do for you?"

Grace had a look of joy in her eyes; "I have a friend in Seattle whom I'd like you to meet."

* * *

Dan wasn't so anxious to meet Grace's friend at first, until he actually met him. He was a tall, thin man, with short black hair. He had a pointed nose, and had a few wrinkles here and there, so Dan had guessed he was in his late forties. When you looked at him, his eyes had this worn out feeling like he saw, heard, and experienced everything and anything that could be seen, heard, and felt. _Dave_ was the name he called himself. He lived in a small neighbourhood, which was very near a park and hospital. After they all had lunch together, the group went for a wilderness walk while Dave had told them about his wild adventures when he was young.

"_**I am a mountaineer, in the hills and highlands,**_" Dave had said. Grace and Amy were very interested in the conversation, so was Dan. But that was only for the first fifteen minutes until the three had started rambling about history.

When they all stopped at a tree near the hospital to talk about an old story, Dan quietly slipped around the corner of a white building. He ended up finding himself in the hospital parking lot.

He sighed and leaned against the cement wall of the building. He was bored. And so he decided to wait there until they were done with their _extremely_ interesting conversation about nature. Hopefully, they hadn't noticed his disappearance.

It wasn't long until Dan started to feel sleepy. Amy, Grace, and Dave were still in earshot, so Dan could hear every word they said.

_How long could a story take? _Dan thought to himself.

Every once in a while, Dan would slowly close his eyes and then quickly open them again. He fought every muscle in his body to stay awake, and yet he couldn't do it. Finally, the distant sound of Dave's voice started draining from his ears, while the scenery of a hospital parking lot slowly started turning into a big blur. At last, Dan was fully asleep on the cold, cement building while his sister, grandmother, and a mountaineer were who-knows-where.

_**I fall asleep in hospital parking lots,**_

* * *

_**And awake in your house.**_

Dan looked around an unfamiliar room; he lay on top of a nicely made bed, with white pillows, sheets, and comforters that were wrapped neatly around it. The walls were painted beige, and the whole floor was covered in sky blue carpet. One wall had a huge window that covered it completely. The landscape was a beautiful view of a beach, with a few families scattered here and there. There was a distant smell of salt water and the sound of waves crashing onto the shore - creating small sand dunes.

"Are you ready to go to the beach?" a familiar voice said next to him. Dan jumped and looked to his right. Only now did he notice there was another bed. On the bed was his sister, Amy, in shorts and a t-shirt and goggles around her eyes.

Dan rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Where are we?"

"We're in a hotel next to the beach. You dozed off near Dave's house and we didn't want to wake you up, so we came here until you woke up by yourself." Amy glanced at the time. "It's 5:00pm, and I want to go to the beach, you coming?"

Just then, Grace came out from around the corner. "All right, Amy, I got everything packed up for the beach. Including your book." She looked up and saw Dan sitting in one of the beds. "Hope you had a nice sleep. You've been in bed for a while. Since you're awake now, let's say we go to the beach."

Dan just grinned in reply and hopped out of bed.

* * *

"AMY, LOOK!" Dan exclaimed pointing out into the ocean. The sun gleamed against the fresh ocean water, causing the blue waves to tint orange. The crisp air surrounded the late afternoon sky.

They had just arrived at Puget Sound a few minutes earlier, and Dan was already soaking wet with sand clinging around his ankles. Grace and Amy were setting up towels, beach chairs, and umbrellas near the shore of the beach to make sure they both could keep an eye on Dan.

Amy groaned and got up, leaving her book behind. She carefully stepped into the water, careful to make sure her shorts didn't get wet. "So, what did you want to show me?" she asked, squinting in the horizon.

"I saw a dolphin thing with wings!" Dan announced. "I promise, it's true!"

Amy sighed. "Dan, I'm sorry but there's no such thing as a flying dolphin, maybe next time."

Dan's expression turned from excited into sad and discouraged. He was so certain he saw whatever he saw in the water, and now his own sister wouldn't even believe him. Just when Amy turned, Dan caught a glimpse of a gigantic looking bat that jumped out of the water. Almost as if it came up to say hello. The creature was flattened, and smooth. It had a small tail, and two points on its head that looked like antennas.

"Amy, there it is again!" he yelled, pointing back into the horizon. When Amy turned around, her eyes widened, for she never saw such a creature before.

"Dan, th-that's not a d-dolphin," Amy said, amazed. "That's a… manta ray."

_**Hello Seattle, I am a manta ray, **_

_**Deep beneath the blue waves.**_

"A what?" Dan questioned. Just then, three more manta rays came jumping out of the water like a whole family of them, creating a beautiful scene in the late afternoon sky.

_**I'll crawl the sandy bottom of Puget Sound,**_

_**And construct a summer home.**_

* * *

Amy and Dan were wrapped around a blanket in the breezy evening sky. The moon was shining down on the beach, creating a beautiful scene between the ocean and the sky. It was getting late, and families were packing up to go home. However, Dan was complaining on staying longer.

"Can we please stay longer?" Dan pleaded, desperately complaining about staying longer, just so the moment wouldn't pass.

"It's getting late and chilly. We should head back to our hotel," Grace said.

"But it's still nice outside, we could go swim some more. I'm not even that sleepy," Dan said, rubbing his eyes. He looked up at the shining moon and noticed its shape. "Why is the moon a backwards _C_?"

Grace and Amy looked up at the sky, and noticed the moon as well. It was the shape of a crescent.

_**Hello Seattle, I am the crescent moon,**_

_**Shining down on your face.**_

Grace laughed. "That isn't a _C_, it's a crescent moon. It's the sign of sleepiness," she said.

"Well, I'm not sleepy," Dan said, barely audible. He was getting really sleepy, and he started to close his eyes very slowly. Just when he was about to close his eyes completely, he opened them up again, blinking a few times. Even though he was awake, it was easy to see that he was extremely tired. Grace sighed in defeat and then pulled a medicine container out of her bag. Dan was so tired; he didn't even bother to look at what Grace was doing.

"Dan, you forgot to eat your pill," Grace said softly, handing him a small white pill. Dan took it, and dropped it into his mouth.

_**I will disguise myself as a sleeping pill,**_

_**And descend inside of you.**_

"That did the trick." Grace muttered to herself. She turned to Amy and said, "Amy, could you please go to the shore and see if Dan left any belongings?"

Amy simply nodded, and headed toward the shore of the beach, with her blanket still around her shoulders. She quickly scanned the water and then grinned at what she saw.

_**Hello Seattle, I am a cold seahorse,**_

_**Feeling warm in your sand.**_

Without taking her eyes of the seahorse, Amy called out to Grace. "Grace, what's the start of that song I like that you sang to us once?"

"_**I sing about the tide and the ocean surf, rolling in the evening breeze,**_" Grace said gently. "Is that the part you requested?"

"Yeah…"

"How come?"

"Oh, nothing really. It's just a bit… ironic."

* * *

It was a rainy day on Monday morning. Grace, Amy, and Dan were at the dock for their last visit before they left Seattle. Since they've arrived in the city, they had, had so much fun. Dan was certain he never wanted to leave.

While they were walking down the dock, he caught sight of a snow-white bird with black wings and a long orange beak, sitting quietly on the edge of a boat. He smiled at the way it flew back and forth from the boat to the dock floor, then over the inlet and interstate.

_**Hello Seattle, I am an albatross,**_

_**On the docks and your boats.**_

Before Dan could announce his new discovery, the albatross flew into the air and glided swiftly above the city.

_**I sail above your inlets and interstates,**_

_**Through the rain and open wind.

* * *

**_

After their last day in Seattle, they took a flight back home to Boston. The trio was sitting quietly in the airplane, waiting for their flight to take off. It was difficult for Amy and Dan to leave Seattle after the great times they had in a week. But they knew they would have to leave, eventually.

Dan was sitting at the window seat of the airplane, gazing outside the window at his last site of Seattle before they left. He secretly wished they could have stayed longer instead of staying with their dumb Au Pair.

When they took off, the lights of Seattle started fading. Dan was about to lean back in his chair until he saw something that caught his eye. He stared out the window into the evening sky, where a lighthouse stood alone on an island. Dan recognized the lighthouse from when they first flew into Seattle. It threw beams of bright blue light in the evening, and then red lights in the morning.

_**Hello Seattle, I am an old lighthouse,**_

_**Throwing beams of bright lights,**_

_**Red in the morning, blue in the evening sun,**_

_**Taking heed from everyone.**_

Dan grinned, and sat comfortably in his seat. He thought back to all the fun times he had when he first arrived:

_**Hello Seattle, I am a mountaineer in the hills and highlands,**_

_**I fall asleep in hospital parking lots…**_

He wondered how far away they were from the city and then looked out the window once more. He saw the old lighthouse right beneath them and thought, _If lighthouses help bring boats across safely; maybe they could do that with airplanes._

_**Take me above your light,**_

_**Carry me through the night,**_

_**Hold me secure in flight,**_

_**Sing me to sleep tonight**_

**_ii._**

_**Take me above your light,**_

_**Carry me through the night,**_

_**Hold me secure in flight,**_

_**Sing me to sleep tonight…**_

Dan shut his eyes, and fell asleep in the flight back home. It was a trip he'd never forget.

* * *

**Challenge Name:**The Songfic Challenge

**Challenge Description:**To put it frankly, I've never read a songfic that I really, really liked. No offense to anyone. For this challenge, you have to write a story based on a song. Wow. Difficult. :P

**Challenge Criteria:**

1. The words of the song- at least some of them- HAVE to be included in the story. I don't care how you fit them in, just make sure you do. Be creative with it!

2. The genres can be anything you want. Romance, humor, angst, horror, western... whatever you want. I'm not picky.

3. If your songfic will include romance, the pairing can be anything. As I'm sure you all know, I love originality when it comes to them. XD

4. Credit MUST BE GIVEN where it's due. As in, to the actual artist of the song. Just put it in the Author's Note or something. :P

5. Please- and I am seriously BEGGING you here- DO NOT MAKE IT CLICHE. That's the main problem with songfics- they ALL have some element of cheesiness in them, and it drives me INSANE. Whoever can manage to write a songfic that is NOT cliche, I will love you forever. 

6. Your summary MUST INCLUDE "For Joelle8's Songfic Challenge". Just to make my life a bit easier.

**Challenge Entry Due Date:**Hmm... let's see... *searches for a random day in her head* NOVEMBER 25, 2010. Thanksgiving! :D

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

**BETA: Lapulta  
**

**SONG: Hello Seattle, Owl City**

_Well, this was my first songfic entered for Jo's Songfic Challenge_. _I didn't want to do a romance songfic mainly because I'm terrible at writing romance (that would explain why my stories are never romance) and I really wanted to use the song, Hello Seattle, by Owl City. Yeah, I like listening to it, and I hope you can too. The main idea of the story is Dan and Amy on a trip to Seattle with Grace. Takes place before the clue hunt, as you may have noticed (all my stories don't involve with the clue hunt) and I hope this story was at least decent. Which I doubt..._


End file.
